Santa Cruz is the most populated of all the Islands and where we decided to base ourselves for most of the time. Besides roaming the paved streets looking for restaurants and trying to find last minute accommodation, we didn't actually see too much of the island. The first two days Marc spent diving (see his diving blog posts) and I explored the areas that were public access (most of the time you need to be with a Galapagos National Parks Guide).
The best part of Galapagos is that the animals are really tame and not at all afraid of humans. We are meant to keep at least two metres from the animals but if you are standing perfectly still and a sea lion happens to walk over to you it's not really your fault!!
On one of our strolls along the main road we stopped at an area where the fishing boats berth to clean and gut their catch. Here we observed with much delight sea lions sneakily trying to steal fish either from the shore or directly from the boats. Personally I feel they have a right to the fish, but the hardworking fisherman aren't always as excited to have a sea lion hop on to their boats.
It really was amazing to just be strolling along and happen upon a sea lion relaxing on a pier or even on a bench (just like a homeless person!).
There is a beautiful beach on Santa Cruz called Tortuga Bay. There is a surf beach side and and the other side is a calm lagoon. I got up relatively early on one of the days Marc was diving and headed off on the 45 minute walk to the bay. I arrived around 8am and lucky to have it pretty much just to myself.
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| Deserted surf beach at Tortuga Bay |
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| Mangrove Island |
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| All to myself! |
Tortuga Bay didn't disappoint in the animal department. They may not be soft and fuzzy but it was awesome just to be able to get so close to wild animals.
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| First Marine Iguana spotting for the trip |
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| Pelican |
